Tenet star John David Washington thinks the film leaves the door open for a sequel, and he hopes to make it. Tenet left fans with a lot of questions when it hit theaters earlier this month, which isn't surprising considering director Christopher Nolan's love for puzzle box plots. The action epic stars Washington alongside Robert Pattinson as they face a global threat. It also plays with the concept of time inversion, a fancy phrase for time travel. Tenet released to solid reviews, but enthusiasm has been tempered by the difficulty of seeing it in the midst of a pandemic.
While there was speculation prior to the film's release that it could in fact be a sequel to one of Nolan's other films, the connection to Inception remains slim. The film faced a tumultuous road to the box office, facing numerous delays due to the coronavirus. When it was eventually released earlier this month, the film's box office produced less than stellar results, an indicator of the strangeness of these times rather than the quality of the film. Still, Tenet has persevered internationally, crossing the $250 million threshold globally. While its numbers in the US are middling, the film is otherwise holding on and is about halfway to the $500 million it needs to break even.
Speaking to Esquire, Washington stated his belief Tenet leaves the door open for a sequel. If that is the case, Washington will surely be involved. The ending reveals that his character, The Protagonist, was pulling the strings all along, founding the titular time travel organization Tenet. This leaves a lot of potential story to tell. However, Washington warns fans not to get too excited:
In reality, I don’t know. Chris does what he wants. Maybe he has something that he’s developed for years that he wants to do next, maybe he’s been inspired by something else he sees and wants to do that, I don’t know. I hope we get to do it again, I hope we get to explore more, because I think we found something really unique.
While there is no doubt Tenet leaves room for more story, the question remains whether Warner Bros. is willing to invest Tenet 2. The reported budget for Tenet is astronomical and while it looks like it may just barely turn a profit, it definitely won't be the result the studio was hoping for. Despite this, Nolan has proven himself to be a steady box office draw when it comes to original, mystery driven blockbusters. If the pandemic hadn't prevented the film from being released on a massive scale, the box office numbers would have surely looked quite different.
Still, Nolan's propensity for sequels is unknown. While his Dark Knight trilogy naturally produced sequels, as is the nature of the superhero genre, he has left all of his other original films untouched. This is not for lack of wanting, either. Fans have voiced the desire to see follow-ups to films like Inception and Interstellar, if only because the world Nolan built around those films is so intriguing. The director tends to lean more into original, stand alone properties, and there is no indication that Tenet is any different. However, Washington isn't wrong when he says the film is ripe for a sequel: it leaves a lot of mysteries unresolved, and Nolan could surely follow it up with another action epic to rival the film's spectacle. Only time will tell.
Source: Esquire